On the cusp of their teenage years, the protagonists of these novels deal with death in the family, remembered childhood trauma and many varieties of parental pressure.
“The Age of Disenchantments,” by Aaron Shulman, chronicles the turbulent lives of Leopoldo Panero, the unofficial poet laureate of Francoism, and his wife and children.
In Julie Langsdorf’s “White Elephant,” Nickolas Butler’s “Little Faith” and Benjamin Markovits’s “A Weekend in New York,” you’ll find squabbling siblings, rebellious daughters and more.
In “America’s Jewish Women” Pamela S. Nadell offers a sweeping historical tour, moving from colonial times through the feminist struggles and until today.
The collection “Rag,” by Maryse Meijer, is rife with blood and violence — much of it inflicted by men on women. In the world of her fiction, there is no desire without pain.
Etaf Rum’s “A Woman Is No Man” unsnarls the dark knot of history, culture, fear and trauma that shapes the experiences of three generations of one family.
In “Thin Blue Lie” Matt Stroud untangles the web of law enforcement agencies, for-profit corporations and politicians that have put technology at the center of policing.
The author, most recently, of “The Overstory” was from an early age a “fan of awe”: “I liked reading about diatoms and stars, things from four hundred million years ago or a hundred thousand years from now.”
The scholar and host of the PBS series “Reconstruction,” whose latest books are “Dark Sky Rising” and “Stony the Road,” is a productive beach reader: “I read more during two months on the Vineyard … than I do the entire rest of the year.”
Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O’Keeffe, Paul Strand and Rebecca Salsbury coupled, fought and made some of the most influential photographs and paintings of the 20th century. “Foursome,” by Carolyn Burke, tells their story.